Is All-purpose flour really for all purposes?

[kenny1999]

I am not a chef and I don't cook often. I only cook probably 3-4 times a week
and for two servings only. I threw a lot of expired foods and ingredients last year so I don't want this to happen again.

There are some flours marketed to be "All-purpose"? Are they really for all purposes?

If they are really for all purposes, what is the meaningfulness of other flours?

I always want to know if I can get ”All-purpose" flour for all of my cooking purposes and would not run into mess

 

[GotGarlic]

All-purpose flour is fine for all cooking purposes that I can think of, like breading pork or chicken and making gravy. Other types of flour, like bread, cake and pastry flour, have different amounts of protein in them, which makes them better suited for different kinds of baking. Self-rising flour has baking powder and salt already in it, to make it easier to make biscuits, etc.

Then there are flours from different kinds of grains, like corn, rye, etc. They have different flavors and properties from wheat flours. But all-purpose flour is always made from wheat.

 

[Andy M.]

AP flour is a compromise flour. Its protein content is higher than cake and pastry flours and lower than bread flour. It was created so a household could get by with only one type of flour.

So you can bake a cake with AP flour but it will probably be a different (softer/more tender) cake with cake flour.

You can bake bread with AP flour but it will be different (chewier loaf) with bread flour.

 

[taxlady]

I agree with GG and Andy. I cannot think of any cooking use where it would make any difference. There could be a difference if you are making fresh pasta or flat bread on a skillet. But, you could probably still use the AP flour. The other flours are specialty flours. They can, as Andy pointed out, make some baked things a bit better, as well as fried bread and fresh pasta.

 

[kenny1999]

Hi, can I deep fry with All-purpose flour?

 

[GotGarlic]

Yes.

 

[jennyema]

AP flour is a compromise flour.

Well put.

 

[tenspeed]

Here's a good explanation of the different types of flours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkEp26sck58

 

[dragnlaw]

AP flour is a compromise flour. Its protein content is higher than cake and pastry flours and lower than bread flour. It was created so a household could get by with only one type of flour.

So you can bake a cake with AP flour but it will probably be a different (softer/more tender) cake with cake flour.

You can bake bread with AP flour but it will be different (chewier loaf) with bread flour.

Well put.

ditto

 

[taxlady]

Here's a good explanation of the different types of flours:

...

Informative video. I think the whole wheat flour he spoke about is the one from regular grocery stores. When I buy whole wheat flour, I get hard or soft. They are actually made from hard wheat or soft wheat. It is easy to tell the difference by feel. The hard one feels hard in comparison to the soft one, which feels noticeably soft. I was quite surprised when I noticed that.

 

[tenspeed]

I came across this listing of protein content by brand of flour. AP flour varies quite a bit between brands. I'm assuming that the listings for southern flour are for brands carried in the southern US, as I haven't seen those brands in stores here in New England.


Protein content of flour | The Fresh Loaf

 

[pepperhead212]

Good point, Tenspeed. I remember reading that post a long time ago on Fresh Loaf, but I'm sure the flours haven't changed much. KAF all purpose is only 1% lower in protein than their bread flour, while it is more than 1% higher than the usual AP flour, making it better for bread, or other higher gluten applications. Probably not the best for biscuits - the reason for those even lower gluten flours down south! lol For making an approximation of cake flour, I put 2 tb cornstarch in a measuring cup, then the rest is AP. Maybe 1 tb of starch would give something like southern AP flour. (My store brand of AP has 10.4%).

 

[kenny1999]

It often takes me at least two hours to deep fry a dish, I 'll stop deep frying, very messy

 

[GotGarlic]

It often takes me at least two hours to deep fry a dish, I 'll stop deep frying, very messy

Yeah, I stopped deep-frying a long time ago. It's just not worth the hassle and mess. Now I just shallow-fry or bake at a high temperature to get a crust.

 

[kenny1999]

Yeah, I stopped deep-frying a long time ago. It's just not worth the hassle and mess. Now I just shallow-fry or bake at a high temperature to get a crust.

You can do deep-frying very fast with enough but additional cookware
, I don't want to keep more cookware while they are not often used.

Instead, I am now using "not very deep-frying" , a little bit between
deep-frying and frying

 

[RPCookin]

I am not a chef and I don't cook often. I only cook probably 3-4 times a week
and for two servings only. I threw a lot of expired foods and ingredients last year so I don't want this to happen again.

There are some flours marketed to be "All-purpose"? Are they really for all purposes?

If they are really for all purposes, what is the meaningfulness of other flours?

I always want to know if I can get ”All-purpose" flour for all of my cooking purposes and would not run into mess

My mother cooked her whole life and never used anything but all purpose flour. It never seemed to be an issue. She didn't make bread until they invented the bread machine, but she still used AP flour in that and got perfectly good loaves.

She made biscuits from scratch with AP flour (they really aren't that difficult that you need cake flour or Bisquick). Most of the time she made cakes with Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines cake mixes.

Just posting this to point out that the average home cook really doesn't need all of the specialty ingredients that is thrust at us these days. You can get by just fine with just a couple kinds of flour, and really just one unless you bake quite often. I have 2 flour canisters, one large one for AP and one about half that size for bread flour.

If you want to avoid even stocking a second flour for bread but still want higher gluten for occasional bread baking, you can buy vital wheat gluten and keep it on hand to just add one or two teaspoons to your AP flour when baking bread. I did it that way for the 2 years that we lived in the Bahamas because there was only one type and brand of flour available from any of the small grocers on the island where we lived. A can of gluten lasts quite a while.